Trump media conference

US President Donald Trump has gone on the defensive over his presidency, accusing America’s news media of being “out of control” at a White House news conference, vowing to bypass the media and take his message “straight to the people.”

Nearly a month into his presidency, Trump said he had “inherited a mess” but his new administration had made “significant progress” and took credit for an optimistic business climate and a rising stock market. He pushed back against widespread reports of a chaotic start to his administration marked by a contentious executive order – now tied up in a legal fight – to place a ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim nations.

That’s not how it appears. It’s not just problems with the media, Trump has ongoing problems with the Courts and had a senior appointee resign.

During the news conference, Trump made a number of misstatements. He said for the third time in two days that he had won 306 Electoral College votes in his election. The correct number was 304. He called it “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan,” when in fact his predecessor, Barack Obama, won 334 electoral college votes in 2012 and 365 in 2008.

When pressed on the figures, Trump said that he meant he achieved a bigger Electoral College victory than any Republican since Reagan in 1980 and 1984 but a reporter pointed out that wasn’t true either as George Bush senior brought in 426 electoral votes in the 1988 election.

When further challenged on this claim, Trump said, “I was given that information. I don’t know. I was just given it. We had a very, very big margin.”

While this may seem like nit picking over numbers it is symptomatic of Trump’s ego problem and his looseness with basic facts. Perhaps those who supply him with information are tardy with facts – or perhaps this is a deliberate strategy to divert from things that really matter.

“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” Trump said.

This is a standard Breitbart/Bannon tactic – accuse opponents of what you are guilty of, in this case deliberate dishonesty.

The president announced that he would announce a “new and very comprehensive order to protect our people.”

Perhaps this time they will consult with people with a knowledge of the law and experience with drafting legal orders.

President Trump’s feud with the media turned into an all-out war Thursday afternoon.

His early presidency beset by damaging leaks and a burst of staff turmoil, Trump used a hastily called press conference to blast the media’s coverage of his administration in his strongest terms yet. He claimed the press is “out of control,” reports on his team’s ties to Russia are “fake,” and news outlets are attacking him because they oppose his agenda.

“The media’s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on the pledges that we made, and they’re not happy about it,” Trump declared at the White House.

The president spoke and took questions for over an hour, even joking with some reporters toward the end and saying he was having fun. In a bid to preempt negative coverage of his remarks, Trump insisted he was not “ranting and raving.” But he lamented that the “tone” of coverage of his administration is one of “such hatred.”

48 Comments

Kevin

Joe Bloggs

what a load of BS – the public doesn’t believe trumpy and his minions any more, and these continued attacks on the media who expose his medacity are simply diversionary tactics to take the heat off his and Flynn’s relationship with Russia:

– his administration is a mess with many positions still unfilled and massive infighting amongst those positions that have been filled
– he’s attracted five times more law suits in his first month of office than any other president
– he’s lost face in various court actions over his Muslim ban (call it whatever you like)
– he’s already fired an adviser
– he’s unable to put the election behind him
– his staff are spruiking for Trump family businesses
– the list goes on…and on… and on…

From the WaPo: “Trump is like a comedian, forever refining his beats. He knows that if he picks on a certain guy in the audience, the rest of the crowd is going to go bananas cause they don’t like the guy either. The more personal he gets, the more they love it.”

This conference confirms my belief that the guy’s a righty snowflake, a chump and out of control. He needs medicating.

Nelly Smickers

Well I watched the whole thing as well…..Kim just tweeted me and I must say I am in total agreement with him about it. KDC has a *lot deeper understanding* of American politics than most people in this country ❗

Just watched President @realDonaldTrump's press conference about #fakenews & media dishonesty. Think what you want about Trump. He's right.

Kitty Catkin

He has hardly showed much understanding of NZ politics, so there is no reason to believe that he knows more than most Kiwis about US politics. His saying so doesn’t make it so. He said that he would oust John Key. He has said a lot of things. It’s just a surprise that one egomaniac would admire another.

Brown

Well Pete, while you keep cutting and pasting CNN it will be tempting to think you are just repeating things that agree with your liberal political views rather than looking to impartially report facts. That doesn’t excuse Trump’s mistakes but its early and I remain hopeful he will learn to adapt and play a smarter game.

Anonymous Coward

Those quotes are from Fox and Stuff, and are more or less direct quotes. The CNN video contains a shred of analysis but also clicks through to 10 raw videos from the conference.
I might suggest that you are so wired to see the media as corrupt or whatever, that you can’t see impartial facts when you a staring at them.

Alan Wilkinson

Simple truth is that the US is in the midst of a vicious civil war between Democrats and Republicans being fought over political power and ideas. You can look at the causes or at the tactics. Please yourself. But it is a war to the death of one side or the other and won’t stop until one capitulates.

Most of the media is on the side of the establishment and Democrats but not all of it. Guerilla warfare is being practiced by the Republicans within the media and by the Democrats within the bureaucracy. The longer the Democrats can hold up the Republican appointments the longer they will hold the advantage within the bureaucracy. If the Republicans can stay united they will eventually win the war within the bureaucracy but they may never win the war against the media unless technological change overthrows the old MSM.

MaureenW

It’s intriguing that those who don’t like Trump resort to ridiculing personal attacks on him and his family as if this would somehow amount to a valid critique of his policies or the change of direction he campaigned on and is now implementing.

I don’t blame Trump for the way he treats elements of the media, they’re divisive and untruthful, or just cherry-picking elements of a policy and “spinning” a negative slant.
It looks like the knives are now out for Kelly Ann Conway – I watched Anderson Cooper (CNN) trying to belittle her, and Mika Brzezinski from Morning Joe state the she refuses to have Conway on the show, “while she’s on it”. I think they’re just trying to win back some dignity after being labelled as fake news.
I saw a tweet by someone the morning after the inauguration, which the snowflakes should take notice of .. “I want President Donald Trump to SUCCEED – rooting for him to fail is like rooting for the pilot of your plane to crash”

Kitty Catkin

No, it isn’t. If/when he comes tumbling down, there will be someone to take his place.Nobody is indispensable. That is a silly (and unoriginal) analogy. One thing-the downfall of Trump-is a real thing to want-the other is a silly thing that nobody would want.

Joe Bloggs

Alan Wilkinson

You guys saw I posted about the Black Congress and the reporter in USA Today. She tried to wrongfoot him and despite all the wailing form CNN and the rest of them, he came off best and that was the end of his speech.

So, just walked into the office after having had an appliance repairer (GRRRRR) in at home. I asked him about the Trump speech. He told me, in NO uncertain terms, that he liked Trump, that he was only saying what everybody thought and everyone he knew was “over the media”.

As we were chatting, Guyon Espiner finishing off his segment talking to a correspondent in Australia. We both listened. Guyon started off by saying, and I paraphrase, “You’re well acquainted with fires, you’ve got many experts on fires and firefighters over there…and who do you send us but Malcom Turnbull!” Tee, hee, queue general mirth and liberal jocularity. Then, Guyon disparagingly again…”He (Turnbull) used to get on (loved, admired) with our last guy, wonder how he’ll go with the new guy”. General, disrespectful banter. Essentially, all about their palsy, walsy aren’t we the clever ones ” relationship and healthy disregard for politicians. Then, of course, queue a chat about Pauline Hansen (sp?), of course in for a huge dose of opprobrium, being as how they’re so well-educated (dip broadcasting, dip media studies) and generally wonderful.

Gezza

Gezza

The full 77 minute minute performance is in here, also a transcipt. Haven’t watched it all yet – the video wouldn’t play on the FiP until I dragged the white dot play thinggy on the track counter a considerable way towards the right first. Going to do a Czech exit now ro watch it.

Al, why not have a watch – unless you’re too scared to in case he embarrasses you?

Alan Wilkinson

Gezza

Yeah, I dunno if I’ll do that as well, Alan. ‘Flicking through’ Iengthy transcripts it’s probably easy to miss little things, where watching the video means you don’t. Also, watching probably works to your advantage sometimes because a total leaf-strewn dopey-looking word salad in a transcript can sometimes look a lot less like that when you see HOW it was delivered. But never mind – sorry to learn about the video phobia.

Anonymous Coward

I watched the first bit of video, and then read the transcript as I can read faster than he can talk. The boy don’t talk good. But I do like the way he goes into sing song on important words sometimes.

Joe Bloggs

a stunning display of Trump’s ability to lie, exaggerate, obfuscate, and mislead the public while insisting that it was actually the media who were doing all of those things.

Over the next hour and 15 minutes, Trump proceeded to berate the press for negative coverage of his administration, shout down reporters who asked questions that he deemed unfriendly, dismiss evidence that his campaign aides had contact with Russia as “fake news,” defend WikiLeaks while calling for a crackdown on leakers in his own White House, and complain that the country he inherited was “a mess.”

He also lamented that “drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars,” spouted a deeply misleading statistic about the federal court that blocked his immigration ban, maintained that the ban had a “very smooth rollout,” and falsely claimed that he had won the electoral college by a larger margin than any president since Reagan.

In response to a question from an Orthodox Jewish reporter about a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, Trump cut the reporter off, told him to sit down and be quiet, and called him a liar, while declaring himself “the least anti-Semitic person you have ever seen in your entire life.” Trump added that he is also “the least racist person.”

At the same time, Trump waved away the well-documented dishonesty of his own national security adviser, Michael Flynn, which led to Flynn’s resignation. Flynn “did nothing wrong” by calling Russia’s ambassador to discuss U.S. sanctions while Barack Obama was still president, Trump said. Rather, Trump has repeatedly blamed “the fake media” for treating Flynn “very, very unfairly.”

Joe Bloggs

If you come across someone in your everyday life who repeatedly says grandiose, fantastical, and demonstrably untrue things, and if they continually fabricate a self-glorifying narrative from moment to moment, what would you think of them?

Come on now – honest answers…

Gezza

Kitty Catkin

I knew someone like that, the Bitch from Hell who snared our friend. Among other things, she claimed that her mother drove animals across the Auckland Harbour Bridge….in the 1930s. Her ‘big flash Art Deco house’ (whose location she tended to forget, the street address was always the same but not the town) didn’t exist. Her ‘grandfather’ was a real well-known person, but he died with no surviving children. No worries, she endowed him with a second wife. NB, Sir X….. X………died in 1933, his first (only) wife in 1930, and TBFH’s mother could not possibly have been his child, although at one point the mother was the child of an affair . Her son was doing a PhD and passing all his exams with A marks. It would have been a good idea to check up how PhDs are done before making this claim. The son DOES work at the university she claimed-but as a technician. Her daughter was on the academic staff of AUT (not) As my husband & I had both learned Latin, him at school, me at school and university, she knew it as well. But she didn’t, of course.

She used to ring up men and say that she wouldn’t say who she was (her droning voice was once heard, never forgotten) but that their wives were ‘having an adulterous affair with (BFH’s husband) ‘.

If I had told her that my great-aunt had been at the Queen’s Coronation-which she was, as one of the ones in the main body of the cathedral, those who sat on blue velvet stools, not chairs, but still a very nice thing to be-TBFH’s would have been a lady-in-waiting.